Of Caterpillars and Butterflies
by thatchersheart
Summary: Pregnant and without Jack by her side, follow Elizabeth as she journeys through life without her husband. Follows from the Season 5 finale (with the exception of the prologue). Rated T for safety. CHAPTER 1 NOW UP!
1. Prologue

**Prologue - A Dark Night**

Town members came rushing out after hearing Elizabeth's screams and cries. Crowds stood around the woman, each taking in the sight in front of them. The Mountie stood with his horse solemnly, he'd worked with Constable Thornton during their time in the Northern Territories. He too was mourning.

Elizabeth was curled up in Abigail's lap, sobbing into the older woman's chest. She didn't listen or react to anything or anyone. She was just there, occasionally mumbling her husband's name between sobs. She felt nothing, was nothing but extreme pain. He was her everything, taken so soon after their wedding.

Rosemary stood next to the Mountie. For once she was silent. She knew something was wrong. The pit in her stomach, that she had originally thought was about Eleanor Roberts, had still been there long after she was caught. He's gone.

Lee ran out of the Saloon, and straight to where Rosemary stood, next to the Mountie. He couldn't believe it. Jack was gone. He felt as though he had lost his brother all over again.

Abigail held her friend tightly, whispering soothing words to Elizabeth, holding back her own tears. Jack was like a son to her. She felt the same pain she did when Peter had died. She looked at Bill with a look to get everyone to move away.

Bill stood there, staring at the scene in front of him, unable to process what had happened. Jack was practically a son to him. He couldn't be gone, just like his father, years ago. He shifted his gaze and looked at Abigail, who was giving him a pleading look to get the crowds away.

The town was dark in mourning, everyone slowly understanding what had happened and moving away on their own, or in small groups to mourn. Some were crying, others just silent.

Everyone felt the loss of Jack.

 **A/N y'know, I should probably say hi to ya'll and welcome you to my fanfic (the original posting did not include this note lol).**

 **Anyways. Hi! I'm Anna. I write this fanfic. Thanks to my friends who edit my fics, for well, editing my fic lol. I have a lot planned for this fic. Don't expect anything about this to be 100% historically accurate, for example her pregnancy. I'm a teenager and not a mum, so I have no idea about any of the pregnancy experiences that you feel. I do try to do a lot of research but I tend to find I spend more time researching the meanings of the names I give my characters.**

 **Anyways. I really hope you enjoy this fic. As always, criticism and reviews allow me to better my writing and this fanfiction, so please, if you have any tips, please let me know by reviewing/pming me.**

 **Love you all, Anna. xx**


	2. Chapter 1

**A month after the season 5 finale – Elizabeth is 15 weeks pregnant**

It was a cool winter's afternoon as Elizabeth walked into the town after a busy day at school. Robert and Cody had a fight, Opal lost Brownie and Hattie snagged her dress on the railing of the school stairs and tore it, making for a chaotic day. It was only a couple weeks until Christmas, so the children were also all excited for the holiday.

Elizabeth laughed to herself as she watched a small group of her students rushing out of the mercantile, most likely with a bag of candy. She moved one of her hands to her stomach, resting it on the small bump where her own baby was growing as she began to day-dream of her baby playing on the streets with the other children.

In her mind, their baby was a little boy with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. He looked like Jack. She wished that Jack was here to experience this with her.

"Elizabeth!" A voice called from behind her, pulling her from her day dream. Elizabeth turned to see a concerned Abigail standing behind her at the porch of the Café.

"Oh. Hi Abigail." She replied with a forced smile as Abigail walked up to her.

"What were you doing? Standing there in the middle of the street." Abigail asked curiously. Tears instantly began to well up in Elizabeth's eyes making Abigail pull the young teacher into a hug.

"Come with me." She said with a comforting smile as she led Elizabeth through the café to the back room, sitting down on her sofa, gesturing for Elizabeth to sit as well.

"I was imagining my baby playing with the children and it hit me again that Jack wouldn't be here for any of this. I don't know if I can do this without him, Abigail." She admitted with a sob, lowering her head to look down at the ground.

"Elizabeth Thornton. You are the strongest woman I know. If anyone can do this, it is you." Abigail insisted, reaching out and grabbing the younger woman's hand, who had stayed staring at the ground, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"You are a kind, smart, loving person. You are strong. You can do this Elizabeth. And you aren't alone. You have all of Hope Valley and your family to help you. You can get through this." She continued. Elizabeth raised her head.

"You mean it?" She stuttered.

"Of course, I do. If you don't believe me, ask anyone else in this town. I'm sure they would say the same." Abigail said with a smile, standing up and pulling Elizabeth into a hug.

 **Three weeks later – Elizabeth is 18 weeks pregnant**

"Have you started thinking of what your baby's nursery will look like?" Rosemary asked suddenly. Rosie and Elizabeth had made it a fortnightly occurrence to have dinner together at Elizabeth's.

"Not yet. I need to make room in my room for the crib. I've been meaning to organise for one from Hamilton with my father. Jack was going to build our baby one, but now…" Elizabeth replied.

"I'm sorry Elizabeth. I shouldn't have asked." Rosie replied, feeling guilty for reminding her friend of something Jack wasn't going to do for her now.

"It's okay Rosemary, you didn't mean any harm. I'm okay." Elizabeth replied with a small smile, reassuring her friend.

Rosemary and Abigail were the best of help for Elizabeth. They distracted her when she needed to be distracted from her thoughts, they sat and soothed her when she needed a good cry and they were always there to reassure her that everything would be okay.

"How about you and I go to Union City during the school break? We could go baby shopping together!" Rosie exclaimed, killing the silence, yet again.

"You know what Rosemary? I think that is a great idea. I'd love to." Elizabeth replied excitedly. For the rest of dinner, the duo discussed plans for their baby shopping trip.

 **Earlier that day.**

 _The town of Hope Valley, minus Elizabeth, the children and a couple others, gathered in the Saloon for a secret town meeting. Abigail stood in front of the crowd and began to talk._

 _"As many of you are probably aware, before his unfortunate death, Jack Thornton had begun building a house for him and Elizabeth, on a block of land just outside the town. Elizabeth is due to have a baby in a few months and the house isn't finished. I know she would be happy to stay in her row house however to show appreciation for all Elizabeth and Jack have or had done for this town, I thought that we could come together and complete the house that Jack had started as a community. Ready for Elizabeth and the baby. Who would like to help?" Abigail said with a smile as hands shot up from all over. Rosemary stood up and walked to the front._

 _"I think that is a brilliant idea for our dear Elizabeth. We would need to keep it a surprise of course! Oh! I could be the decoy. I could take Elizabeth away to shop for baby things while you all work on the house." Rosemary exclaimed excitedly. Lee sighed and shot an apologetic look at Abigail who laughed slightly._

 _"Thank you, Rosemary. Maybe you could take her shopping during the school break after New Years when Elizabeth returns from Hamilton. She's spending Christmas with her family and coming home the day after New Years. We will need you to help the children, they should have a part in helping with the house."_

 _"Yes. Of course. I could do that." Rosie replied excitedly, walking back and sitting back in her seat next to Lee._

 **A/N Re-uploaded to remove encryption error. Happy Reading. Anna xx**


	3. AN - Apologies

**A/N**

 **I am immensely sorry for not updating Of Caterpillars and Butterflies. There were/are some serious mistakes on my part, regarding story line and time, which I'm slowly working on fixing. It is a slow process currently as I am behind in some of my studies and have exams coming up at the end of the month.I request that you please be understanding and patient as I get this work completed, I promise I will have a new chapter up hopefully before June.**

 **In the meantime, I have started writing, yet another story, which I am working very hard on. I'm not expecting it to be a super long running series. It will also consist of relatively short chapters, as it is much easier for me to just jump on and write a 500-1000ish word chapter, meaning it will have more regular updates. I am immensely impressed with this new story myself and cannot wait to publish it. I'm currently pre-writing some chapters, so I can make sure everything is smooth and so that I can make any additional changes in the storyline. Stay on the look out for it, I can't give you a title yet, but keep an eye out for anything new from me.**

 **I also have a long series that I've started, it won't be posted for a long time yet, as I would like to work on it, full book finished before I post.**

 **On a sad note, I am putting A Different Story into Hiatus for the mean time. I don't want to disappoint anyone, but after the wedding and the finale, I was and still am very demotivated with this story. I may bring it back, probably re-written. But for now, it will stay as it is. I'm very sorry to the readers who loved this storyline and little Claire.**

 **As for Jack's Letters, the re-write for this has been put on temporary hold until after my exams. I wasn't sure about posting new chapters to it after the finale, as was set during the Northern Territories time and I didn't want to confuse anyone with a new fic about Jack after his death when it wasn't corresponding to his real death. If that makes any sense.**

 **And finally, I want to say a big thank you to all my readers for being patient with my slow, almost never updates and also my helpful little proof-readers/editors (Anja and Kristyn).**

 **God bless you all, I love you all so much.**

 **Anna aka thatchersheart. xx**


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